Episodes

  • Brian Hilberdink on Boehringer’s U.S. Growth, AI & Pharma’s Next Frontier

    Brian Hilberdink on Boehringer’s U.S. Growth, AI & Pharma’s Next Frontier
    Jan 28 2026
    Synopsis: From managing a theme park in Canada to leading the U.S. business of one of the world’s largest privately held pharma companies, Brian Hilberdink’s journey is anything but conventional. Live from JPM 2026 in San Francisco, Biotech 2050 host Alok Tayi sits down with the President, U.S. Human Pharma at Boehringer Ingelheim to explore how frontline sales experience shaped a career now steering launches across obesity, chronic kidney disease, oncology, and rare disease. The pair dive into Boehringer’s long-term, privately held model—one that reinvests nearly 30% of revenue into R&D—and the strategic thinking behind its ambitious pipeline: first-in-class breakthroughs in interstitial lung disease, major obesity programs, and upcoming waves of launches through 2027 and beyond. They also unpack the future of commercial pharma—from direct-to-consumer models and digital patient engagement to AI-powered launches and trial recruitment—plus Brian’s candid views on China’s innovation engine and the growing importance of rare disease. A masterclass in modern pharma leadership, portfolio strategy, and building for generations. Biography: Brian Hilberdink is an accomplished global executive with over 25 years of leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry, currently serving as President of U.S. Human Pharma at Boehringer Ingelheim. In his role at Boehringer, he oversees several business units across multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiometabolic and renal diseases, obesity, pulmonary fibrosis (ILD), and oncology. Renowned for driving impactful results and fostering cultures of accountability and engagement, Brian consistently enhances organizational performance. Previously, Hilberdink served as Executive Vice President at LEO Pharma, where he led the North American Region and served as President of the U.S. affiliate, which became the primary growth driver for the company globally.. Earlier in his career, Hilberdink held several senior-level positions at Novo Nordisk, where he worked across multiple geographies. He was recognized for developing and executing innovative go-to-market strategies, resulting in the successful launch of multiple blockbuster therapies in the areas of obesity and diabetes.
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    22 mins
  • Johan Luthman, Lundbeck EVP R&D, on Rebuilding Neuroscience Pipelines & Drug Discovery

    Johan Luthman, Lundbeck EVP R&D, on Rebuilding Neuroscience Pipelines & Drug Discovery
    Jan 27 2026
    Synopsis: Fresh from the JPM 2026 in San Francisco, Alok Tayi welcomes Johan Luthman, Executive Vice President of R&D at Lundbeck, for a sweeping, deeply personal conversation on the future of neuroscience drug development. From his early days as a Swedish clinician-scientist to leading breakthrough Alzheimer’s programs and rebuilding Lundbeck’s pipeline from the ground up, Johan shares the pivotal moments—and phone calls—that shaped a 30-year career across AstraZeneca, Merck, Serono, and now Denmark’s neuroscience powerhouse. The discussion dives into Lundbeck’s bold strategic reset: letting biology lead, de-risking early in patients, embracing rare disease and sleep medicine, and making disciplined bets on monoclonal antibodies, migraine prevention, epilepsy, and neuroendocrine disorders. Johan explains how the company shifted capital toward innovation, rebuilt its portfolio through targeted acquisitions, and built one of the most advanced neuroscience pipelines in pharma today. In one of the episode’s most powerful moments, Johan opens up about his personal motivation—caring for family members with Alzheimer’s and dedicating his career to diseases of the brain. From AI-driven R&D productivity and adaptive trials to Denmark’s unique foundation-owned pharma model, this conversation is a masterclass in scientific rigor, decision-making under uncertainty, and keeping patients at the center of everything. Biography: In 1991, Johan Luthman began his career in the pharmaceutical industry in Astra, later AstraZeneca. In 2005, Johan joined Serono as Head of Neuroscience & Immunology Research, and subsequently, in MerckSerono, as Therapy Area Head, Neurology & Immunology. In 2009, he became CEO of biotech start-up GeNeuro. In late 2009, Johan joined Merck as VP & Franchise Integrator for Neuroscience and Ophthalmology. In 2014, he came to Eisai where he was Senior Vice President and Head of Clinical Development. Johan joined Lundbeck as Executive Vice President, R&D in March 2019. Johan is a Swedish national and is trained as a Doctor of Dental Sciences from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He also holds a PhD in Neurobiology and Histology as well as an Associate Professor title from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Johan is a Member of the Board of Directors of Brain+.
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    31 mins
  • Christophe Bourdon, LEO Pharma CEO, on Dermatology Innovation, Rare Disease & Scalable Growth

    Christophe Bourdon, LEO Pharma CEO, on Dermatology Innovation, Rare Disease & Scalable Growth
    Jan 20 2026
    Synopsis: At a moment when biotech is rethinking growth, innovation, and patient impact, Alok Tayi sits down with Christophe Bourdon, Chief Executive Officer of LEO Pharma, to explore what it truly means to build a purpose-driven, commercial-stage biotech. Drawing on three decades across Sanofi, Alexion, Amgen, and now LEO Pharma, Christophe shares a clear conviction: innovation only matters when it meaningfully changes patients’ lives. At LEO Pharma, that belief is shaping a focused strategy in medical dermatology, where over one-third of the global population is affected and thousands of skin diseases still lack approved treatments. The conversation spans LEO Pharma’s evolution into a nearly $2B growth company, the rise of first-in-class therapies in atopic dermatitis and chronic hand eczema, and why formulation science, rare disease execution, and “white-glove” patient support are essential to changing standards of care. Christophe also offers sharp perspectives on AI-enabled scouting, the accelerating innovation coming out of China, and why biotech must resist “me-too” products in favor of true clinical breakthroughs. From JPMorgan Healthcare Conference insights to deeply human stories of rare disease care at 4 a.m., this episode is a masterclass in disciplined growth, differentiated innovation, and patient-first leadership. Biography: Christophe joined LEO Pharma as CEO in April 2022 and has since led the company through a strategic transformation, sharpening its focus on innovation and external partnerships. Under his leadership, LEO Pharma has accelerated growth in key markets, advanced its pipeline, and strengthened its culture, reinforcing its position as a global leader in medical dermatology. Before joining LEO Pharma, he served as CEO of Orphazyme A/S. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Senior Vice President and General Manager for the U.S. Oncology Business, and at Alexion as Senior Vice President, EMEAC, overseeing the commercial development of ultra-orphan therapies across 40 countries. Christophe holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a B.A. from the Institut Supérieur de Gestion (ISG) in Paris, France.
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    13 mins
  • Matt Gline, Roivant Sciences CEO, on Clinical Breakthroughs, Capital Discipline & Building Biotech

    Matt Gline, Roivant Sciences CEO, on Clinical Breakthroughs, Capital Discipline & Building Biotech
    Dec 17 2025
    Synopsis: This episode is proudly sponsored by Quartzy. Roivant Sciences CEO Matt Gline returns to Biotech 2050 for a deeply reflective conversation with host Rahul Chaturvedi on what it really takes to build a biotech company that lasts. From Roivant’s transformational $7B Pfizer-to-Roche deal to delivering registrational Phase 3 data in dermatomyositis—one of biotech’s most difficult graveyard indications—Matt shares how disciplined execution, decentralization, and learning from failure shaped Roivant’s trajectory. The discussion explores Roivant’s unique “Vant” model, why multiple CEOs can outperform centralized command-and-control structures, and how thoughtful clinical trial design—down to steroid tapering and site execution—can make or break outcomes in rare disease development. Beyond science and strategy, Matt reflects candidly on his own evolution as CEO, the realities of leading a public biotech through volatile markets, and why authenticity, focus, and embracing hard lessons matter more than chasing hype. This episode is a masterclass in biotech leadership, clinical development, and long-term value creation. Biography: Matt Gline serves as Chief Executive Officer of Roivant Sciences. Mr. Gline joined Roivant in March 2016 and previously served as Chief Financial Officer. From April 2014 to March 2016, he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, Fixed Income Digital Structuring, where he focused on technology and data strategy. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Gline was a co-founder of Fourthree, a risk analytics technology and consulting company. From 2008 to 2012, he served as Vice President at Barclays, Enterprise Risk Management Advisory, where he provided analysis for corporate clients related to capital markets access for financing and risk management. Mr. Gline earned his A.B. in Physics from Harvard College.
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    34 mins
  • Jay Hartenbach, President & COO, Diakonos Oncology on Reprogramming Cancer Immunity Breakthrough

    Jay Hartenbach, President & COO, Diakonos Oncology on Reprogramming Cancer Immunity Breakthrough
    Dec 10 2025
    Synopsis: This episode is proudly sponsored by Quartzy. What happens when engineering discipline, business pragmatism, and breakthrough immunology collide? In this episode of Biotech 2050, host Alok Tayi sits down with Jay Hartenbach, President & COO of Diakonos Oncology, to unpack one of the most unconventional—and promising—approaches in cancer immunotherapy today. Jay traces his journey from biomedical engineering into biotech operations, sharing how Diakonos was built outside the traditional venture playbook and why the company chose to tackle two of the most punishing cancers first: glioblastoma and pancreatic cancer. He reveals how Diakonos’ dual-loading dendritic cell platform creates an exponentially stronger immune response—essentially tricking the body into launching a viral-level attack against cancer. From capital-efficient clinical execution to nontraditional fundraising and early signs of durable patient responses, this conversation offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how bold science, disciplined operations, and relentless persistence can reshape what’s possible in oncology. Biography: Jay Hartenbach is a distinguished leader in the biotechnology and wellness sectors, known for his passionate commitment to advancing innovative healthcare solutions and transforming patient outcomes. He currently serves as President and Chief Operating Officer at Diakonos Oncology, where he is leading the team through the development and clinical advancement of pioneering immunotherapies targeting some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers, including glioblastoma and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.​ Since joining Diakonos Oncology, Jay has been instrumental in achieving significant milestones such as attaining FDA Fast Track and Orphan Drug Designation for the company’s lead candidate, DOC1021, securing greater than $30 million in financing, and establishing research collaborations with leading cancer centers to advance the clinical trials of the company’s novel dendritic cell vaccine platform. Before his role at Diakonos, Jay co-founded Medterra, a globally recognized wellness company that set industry standards for quality and innovation, and where he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board, shaping high-level strategic direction. He also co-founded Perland Pharmaceuticals, an early-stage biotech firm focused on developing therapies for arthritis conditions, and has held leadership and board advisory roles across several life sciences ventures.​ Jay holds a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Miami and a Master of Engineering Management from Duke University, grounding his entrepreneurial leadership with scientific expertise.
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    28 mins
  • John Lepore, CEO & President - ProFound Therapeutics, on Proteome, AI, & Bold First-in-Class Drugs

    John Lepore, CEO & President - ProFound Therapeutics, on Proteome, AI, & Bold First-in-Class Drugs
    Dec 3 2025
    Synopsis: This episode is proudly sponsored by Quartzy. In this far-reaching conversation, Rahul Chaturvedi speaks with John Lepore, CEO & President of ProFound Therapeutics and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering, tracing a career shaped by a deep commitment to understanding the causal machinery of human disease. John shares how a Harvard-trained physician-scientist evolved into a biotech leader building one of the industry’s most ambitious platform companies. Reflecting on 17 years at GSK — from academic cardiologist to running global research — John describes the moment he realized traditional target discovery had reached its limits. That insight propelled him into Flagship’s venture-creation ecosystem and ultimately into leading ProFound Therapeutics, where the team is uncovering tens of thousands of previously unknown human proteins that could fundamentally reshape drug discovery and unlock true first-in-class opportunities. John also offers a candid look at today’s biotech leadership realities: navigating capital-tight markets, fostering high-trust pharma partnerships, making disciplined early kill decisions, and using AI to extract causal insights from vast proteomic datasets. Together, he and Rahul explore why the expanded human proteome may be medicine’s next great frontier — and what it takes, scientifically and psychologically, to lead a company bold enough to pursue it. Biography: John Lepore, M.D., is CEO and President of ProFound Therapeutics and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he is leading a new era of drug discovery by harnessing the expanded proteome to build a pipeline of first-in-class medicines. A physician-scientist and accomplished pharma executive, he joined ProFound following a 17-year career at GSK, where he was most recently SVP, Head of Research, leading a 2,500+ person global team and driving a renewed focus on immunology and human genetics across target discovery and validation, modality platforms, drug discovery, and clinical translation. He also chaired GSK’s Research Review and Investment Board, guiding capital allocation and R&D strategy. Under his leadership, GSK advanced 15 Phase 1 programs with first- or best-in-class potential and executed $1B+ in strategic R&D deals. Before joining the biopharma industry, Dr. Lepore was a faculty cardiologist and research investigator at the University of Pennsylvania, where his lab investigated the transcription regulation of cardiovascular development. He currently serves on the boards of ProFound, KSQ Therapeutics, and the Innovation Growth Board of Mass General Brigham. Dr. Lepore received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Scranton and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, after which he completed his residency and post-doctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health.
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    35 mins
  • Jason Kelly - Ginkgo Bioworks CEO and Co-Founder on Automation, AI Data & Biotech’s Reset

    Jason Kelly - Ginkgo Bioworks CEO and Co-Founder on Automation, AI Data & Biotech’s Reset
    Nov 25 2025
    Synopsis: This episode is proudly sponsored by Quartzy. Biotech is undergoing a scientific redesign, and Jason Kelly reveals to host Alok Tayi how automation, AI-ready datasets, and modular lab technologies are reshaping the future of R&D. Jason explains why legacy biopharma data—messy, inconsistent, and lacking metadata—cannot power modern machine learning, and why the industry must generate entirely new, massively standardized experimental datasets to unlock AI’s true potential. He walks through Ginkgo’s evolution from platform partnerships to a next-generation CRO built for AI-driven discovery, offering industrialized functional genomics, mammalian engineering, CRISPR libraries, and high-throughput developability assays at unprecedented scale. Jason also describes how Ginkgo’s reconfigurable automation systems—robotic building blocks that replace 18-month custom builds—are democratizing high-throughput experimentation and making advanced lab infrastructure as flexible as cloud computing. Together, Jason and Alok explore how the fusion of automation and AI can collapse R&D timelines, rewrite cost structures, and enable thousands of new biotech companies to test ideas faster than ever before. For scientists, engineers, and AI practitioners, this episode offers a compelling look at the new scientific architecture emerging at the intersection of robotics, data, and programmable biology. Biography: Dr. Jason Kelly is the co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. He took the company public and raised $1.6B in the largest US biotech public listing to date in 2021. Today the company is pioneering autonomous labs that accelerate bioengineering across biopharma, agriculture, and industrial biotech industries. Jason also previously served as the Chair of the US National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology which oversees how advancements in emerging biotechnology will shape current and future activities of the US Department of Defense. Prior to Ginkgo, Jason received B.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biology and a PhD in Biological Engineering all from MIT.
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    40 mins
  • Arun Swaminathan: Coya CEO on Neuroinflammation, BD Strategy & Patient-Driven Biotech

    Arun Swaminathan: Coya CEO on Neuroinflammation, BD Strategy & Patient-Driven Biotech
    Nov 20 2025
    Synopsis: In a conversation rich with strategic insight, Coya Therapeutics CEO Arun Swaminathan unpacks the intersections of scientific innovation, business development discipline, and capital-efficient execution that define today’s most resilient biotechs. With a 25-year foundation spanning R&D, clinical pharmacology, marketing, and BD, Arun offers investors a rare systems-level lens on how neurodegenerative programs progress from hypothesis to value inflection. Through his dialogue with host Alok Tayi, he breaks down Coya’s differentiated Treg-modulating platform and the data emerging across ALS, FTD, and Alzheimer’s. He explains why Coya’s dual-mechanism approach—restoring regulatory T-cell function while reshaping the neuroinflammatory environment—is uniquely poised to change patient trajectories. Arun also delves into the structural logic behind Coya’s partnership with Dr. Reddy’s, demonstrating how complementary strengths in manufacturing, commercialization, and regulatory strategy can dramatically shift both timelines and capital needs. For investors tracking macro trends, he contextualizes shifting interest rates, pipeline gaps, and rising M&A momentum—and why 2026 may mark the beginning of a healthier biotech cycle. A must-listen for anyone evaluating platform durability, risk mitigation strategies, and next-generation neurodegenerative therapeutics. Biography: Arun Swaminathan, Ph.D., has over 20 years of hands-on healthcare business executive experience with an emphasis on corporate and business development, strategy, and finance. He possesses a demonstrated history of prospecting, evaluating, structuring, and closing company validating transactions that augment both organizational and shareholder value. Prior to joining Coya, Arun served as Chief Business Officer (CBO) for Actinium Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: ATNM) where he was responsible for all business development. Within 1 year of joining Actinium, he successfully moved forward negotiations to closure and executed a $452M deal with $35M upfront. Prior to Actinium, he was the CBO at Alteogen (196170.KQ) where he spearheaded over $6B in deals, including deals with two of the top 10 global pharma companies and a $1B+ deal within the first year of assuming the role of CBO. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as CEO of Lynkogen Inc, a pre-clinical stage biotech. Arun began his career in clinical development and commercial roles of increasing responsibility at BristolMyers Squibb and Covance. He obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Pittsburgh.
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    37 mins